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McCain, Schumer: GOP needs immigration reform

Hannity: I've 'evolved' on immigration

In the wake of the 2012 elections and Mitt Romney’s disastrous showing with Latino voters, conservative commentators lined up to announce support for varying degrees of immigration reform. Sean Hannity, the right-wing talk radio host and Fox News anchor, drew attention when he said shortly after the election that his opinion had “evolved” and he now supported a “pathway to citizenship.” While Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist, stopped short of advocating citizenship, he called on Republicans should “change their position” and be open to “amnesty.”

But now that an actual plan is beginning to take shape this week, the Republican unity in media circles has begun to crumble.

The new immigration reform effort, announced yesterday by a bipartisan group of senators, has driven a wedge into the conservative commentariat. Karl Rove and the Wall Street Journal editorial board mostly support the plan, while powerful right-wing personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin oppose it.

The divide among influential voices in the “conservative entertainment complex,” as David Frum described it, marks yet another contest in the ongoing civil war among the GOP and could have serious implications for the immigration debate among Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

In a sign of how divisive the issue has become among conservatives, Limbaugh said Monday that it was “up to me and Fox News” to stop a deal that would provide a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants unless they had been convicted of a major felony. But Limbaugh doubted that even Fox News had the backbone to join him in that crusade. “It’s up to me and Fox News, and I don’t think Fox News is that invested in this. I don’t think there’s any Republican opposition to this of any majority consequence or size,” Limbaugh said on his radio program.

Indeed, the voices on Fox News have been more nuanced than Limbaugh might like. Hannity, supporter of “a pathway to citizenship,” opened his show Monday night neither opposing nor supporting the plan, but rather urging Republicans to proceed cautiously. Krauthammer took a harder line on Fox News, calling the plan “highly misleading” because it would mean “instant legalization for 11 million illegal immigrants… the functional equivalent of a green card.”

But while Hannity, Krauthammer and other personalities on Fox News take issue with the proposals, none seem to satisfy the hard-line, anti-amnesty view embraced by the far right.

Glenn Beck, the right-wing television and talk radio host, is adamantly opposed.

“When Washington decides to do something that doesn’t diminish the meaning of citizenship while upholding the melting pot values of our country… let me know,” Beck told POLITICO. “But this isn’t it — and don’t hold your breath, no one on either side of the aisle is serious about solving problems. They only create them.”

Malkin, a popular right-wing pundit, called the Republican senators involved in crafting the plan “suicidal” and “self-deluded,” referring to them as “GOP illegal alien amnesty promoters” and “capitulationist Republicans.”

At the same time, the Wall Street Journal says it is wrong to suggest the Senate group’s proposals amount to amnesty, calling it a “false charge.”

“[T]he four Democrats, led by New York’s Chuck Schumer and Mr. Durbin, have agreed to accept substantial enforcement guarantees and procedural hurdles before such a citizenship path would be open,” the editorial board wrote. “This has been a sticking point for GOP cooperation and should help Republicans rebut the false charge that this amounts to an ‘amnesty.’”